


Expose

by ladyc2



Category: KAT-TUN (Band), Kanjani8 (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-26
Updated: 2015-08-26
Packaged: 2018-04-17 07:24:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4657746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladyc2/pseuds/ladyc2
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ryo and Kame's relationship is revealed by the paparazzi.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Expose

The credits for the movie started scrolling and Ryo tensed. Now was the moment. He’d been putting off telling Kame all night, not wanting to ruin the mood, but it was getting late and he was out of time. 

Kame’s head rested on his shoulder and for a moment Ryo thought that maybe he’d fallen asleep during the movie, but as the screen went to black Kame moved, turning his head inward and nuzzling against his neck. Ryo groaned - or maybe that was a moan - either way Kame took it as a sign of encouragement and his hand, which had been resting on Ryo’s thigh for most of the movie, slowly began trailing upwards.

“Kame.” Ryo put his own hand on top of Kame’s to stop its upward trajectory. “I have to go.” His voice sounded hoarse to his own ears. Kame stilled against his neck, before pulling back to stare at him in disbelief.

“What?” he asked as though he’d somehow misheard what Ryo had said.

Ryo kept his eyes on television as he repeated his words. 

“You’re leaving?” Kame didn’t sound happy, and Ryo couldn’t blame him.

“It’s not like I want too,” he whined turning his head and giving Kame his best pleading expression. Don’t kill me, his eyes tried to convey.

“Work?”

Ryo shook his head. “There’s this photographer - he’s been chasing me around for the last couple of weeks. I swear he’s got it in for me.”

“You’re ditching me for the paparazzi?” 

“I managed to lose him but if he stays true to form he’ll probably be camped out at my apartment.” He’d been doing that a lot. “If I stay out all night it will just convince him further that I have something to hide. ”

Kame thankfully didn’t mention how running away from the photographer was probably just as good a sign that he was hiding something. 

“If you’re that worried about it, why didn’t you just call tonight off? You know I would’ve understood.” 

Ryo turned his head downwards, focusing on a loose thread on Kame’s couch. “And miss out on your cooking. Not a chance.” He inwardly cursed his inability to state what he was really feeling. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Kame’s lips quirk upward and a blush rise on his cheeks. That was one of the things he liked best about Kazuya; he always seemed to know what Ryo was saying without him actually having to say it. He grinned in return, although it only lasted a moment as he remembered that he had to leave.

\---

The next few weeks were interminable for Ryo. At least if they were both swamped with work, or Ryo was stuck in Osaka, while still frustrating, it was understandable. But to be held back and reduced to only communicating via phone when they both had time to spare - it was unfair. Maybe he should trying talking to management again. Nobody seemed to buy that this guy was anything other than regular paparazzi, but regular paparazzi surely would have gotten bored by now and moved onto other targets.

Yoko tapped the table and Ryo looked up from where he had been mindlessly staring at the flat surface.

“We’re going for drinks. Want to come?”

Ryo shook his head. “Nah, I think I’ll just head home.” Maybe Kame would still be up and they could at least have phone sex. He slowly got up and moved to pack up his things, waving to the others as they left, noisily jostling their way through the door. 

The carpark was close to deserted at this time of night and Ryo stifled a yawn as he walked towards his car. His steps faltered as he noticed a figure standing beside his car. It was too tall to be his manager. Too tall and too blonde - his manager wouldn’t be caught dead with such a bad dye job. He did recognise him though, it wasn’t hard - for a paparazzi he sure didn’t make much of an effort to hide what he was doing anymore. Ryo halted a few feet away from the man.

“What do you want?” Ryo demanded. 

The photographer smirked as he held out an envelope. Ryo ignored it.

“I asked you a question.” 

“Take it,” the photographer replied throwing the envelope as he did so. Ryo reflexively caught it as it connected with his chest. The two men eyed each other for a moment before Ryo broke his gaze and looked down at the envelope. He opened the seal and pulled out photographs - photo’s of himself and Kame. 

“You can keep those. I have more.”

“How,” Ryo paused. How did you get these, he wanted to ask. His mind was clouded like he was walking through fog and it was hard to think clearly. He gripped the photos tighter. “How much?”

The photographer laughed, it was a grating sound on Ryo’s ears, like nails on a chalkboard.

“Oh I don’t want your money. I’ve already handed them in. I imagine they’re printing up the story for tomorrow’s paper right now. Much too late to stop it.”

“Then why show me these at all.”

“Because I wanted to see the look on your face,” The photographer closed the gap between them until he was right in Ryo’s face, “up close and personal.” He smirked before turning and walking away.

“What the hell did I ever do to you?” Ryo called out after him but he was ignored. Ryo wanted to chase him down and punch his lights out but that wouldn’t change anything. He slammed his fist into the car door instead. The pain distracted him for a second. He turned and leaned back against the door. Now what? Only one thought now crossed his mind. Kame. He had to warn Kame. He pulled out his phone, fumbling a little with it as his hands had started shaking. He scrolled through his contacts until he found the other’s name, hitting the button.

Kame picked up on the fourth ring. “Ryo?” his voice sounded sleepy. 

Ryo slid down to the ground, his back resting against the front tyre. 

“I’m sorry,” Ryo choked out.

“What?” There was a shuffling sound on the other end of the phone as if Kame was shifting position. “Ryo?” His voice was a lot more awake this time.

“He had photos...I thought we’d been careful enough...tomorrow’s paper... I’m sorry. So, so sorry.”

“Ryo. Ryo!” Kame’s voice cut into Ryo’s babbling. “Calm down and tell me what’s going on?”

So Ryo told him, about the photographer, about the photos. There was a long silence on the other end of the line when he’d finished. 

“Okay. Listen, Ryo, you need to call Kanjani - Yoko or Murakami-kun would probably be best and tell them what’s happened. Get them to come and pick you up, you shouldn’t be driving in your state.” That was just like Kame, to be worried about him when Ryo had just ruined his entire career. Kame was still talking. “I’ll do the same with KAT-TUN, we’ll sort the rest out in the morning.”

The connection cut off, but Ryo was immobile, the phone still held to his ear as his brain tried to process something beyond the thought of ‘we’re ruined, it’s all over’. Kame’s instructions eventually filtered through and he brought the phone down briefly to dial Yoko’s number. Then he explained everything again, briefly, tersely, before cutting the line and letting his hand fall down to the ground. His phone skittered out of his hand as it hit, but he didn’t bother to reach for it; didn’t move at all until Yoko turned up.

\---

Kame shut the door to the dressing room and heaved a sigh of relief. He’d come in early, really early, leaving his apartment not long after he’d gotten off the phone with Nakamaru, informing him of the news (or what would be tomorrow’s news anyway), and just driving around until the papers started being delivered to the stores. 

He dropped onto the couch and pulled the paper out of his bag - thankfully nobody in the conbini he’d bought it from had recognised him. He hesitated a moment before spreading the pages out across the table. It was still a little surreal, Ryo’s phone call hadn’t really sunk in yet but it was about to hit him in face as he finally let himself look at the pages in front of him.

He took a deep breath and focused.

The first shot was of he and Ryo outside of a restaurant. They were standing close, maybe a little too close, but nothing particularly out of the ordinary. Kame was laughing at something and Ryo seemed to be grinning too, looking proud like he was the one who had made Kame laugh so hard. 

The second shot was probably taken a few seconds later; they were still smiling and it had a little red circle helpfully pointing out where their hands were entwined. There were a few other pictures, shots of Kame purportedly outside Ryo’s apartment, and vice versa. The last photo was the clincher though. It was a bad angle and you couldn’t really make out much detail but there wasn’t much else they could have been doing but kissing, in the position they were in, Ryo backed against a wall, with Kame pressed up against him.

Judging from the clothes he was wearing these photo’s were at least a couple of months old. Maybe that’s why the photographer had been following Ryo around; hoping to get a clearer shot or a better angle of them kissing before he handed the photos in. Maybe he’d just got tired of waiting. It didn’t really explain why he’d gone to Ryo first and hadn’t just let them be surprised though.

The door to the dressing room swung open and Nakamaru came in followed by Junno and Ueda. Kame’s first instinct was to close the paper up, but he resisted. If they hadn’t seen it by now, they soon would.

“Kame, you’re here already.” Nakamaru seemed surprised.

“I came in early.”

“Good idea, the media are like attack dogs out there.” Ueda unhelpfully supplied. Kame was glad he missed it himself, but he felt bad that the others were having to go through it.

“Sorry.”

Nakamaru smiled reassuringly. “Hey, it’s okay. We always knew when you first told us about you and Ryo that this could happen.” After Koki, they’d made a pledge to be honest with each other about everything - they didn’t want to get blindsided again. 

“Yeah, but,” Kame paused, not sure how to word his feelings. He hated being the one to cause the group trouble. They’d been through more than enough already. Still, no matter what, he couldn’t regret his relationship with Ryo.

“Frankly I’m surprised it’s taken so long,” Ueda said flopping down on the couch. When Kame raised an eyebrow at him, he added, “What, it’s not my fault you two can’t keep your hands off each other.” 

“We can so.”

Ueda tapped the paper. “Looks like.” He grinned as he said it, like he knew he’d won the argument. 

Kame resisted the urge the punch him.

\---

Ryo stared at the television in the corner of the dressing room. The sound was muted but he hardly needed to hear it with the words and pictures being splashed across the screen.

“You shouldn’t be watching this,” Yasu suggested. 

“Leave me alone,” Ryo muttered, his hand curling around the remote so they couldn’t take it away from him. He was rewarded with a slap on the head. He looked up into Hina’s stern face.

“We’re on your side, remember.”

 

Ryo looked down, ashamed, then he raised his head to meet first Hina’s, then Yasu’s gaze. 

“I know,” he muttered.

Maru walked over and plopped himself down on the couch, squishing up beside Ryo and stealing the remote quickly out of Ryo’s hands when loosened his grip to shift out of the way. He quickly passed it to Yasu, who flicked it off.

“It’s not like we haven’t been through this before,” he said before Ryo could complain. 

“Huh?” Ryo was confused.

Maru smiled. “You know, when you did that ‘Papa wa Idol’ drama. I mean it was acting, so it was a little different, but the feelings are the same.”

“Except this time you married Kame,” Ohkura added in.

“Shut up, we’re not married,” Ryo replied, then his voice dropped to a whisper. “He probably doesn’t want to even see me anymore.”

“Relax, he’s fine.” Yoko waved his phone in Ryo’s face; whether he’d heard Ryo or just guessed what he’d been thinking, Ryo couldn’t be sure. “I just finished to talking to Nakamaru-kun and Kame’s here in the building. He hasn’t even seen a reporter. And he’s worried about you too.”

“That’s good, right.” Yasu enthused. “The managers will figure out a way to handle this, we just have to wait until they do.”

“Great,” Ryo agreed, a little sarcastically. Management had been rather quiet so far. Just a quick instruction to sit tight when they’d arrived. Ryo wasn’t sure whether that was a good sign or a really bad sign. 

 

\---

Kame looked up from where Taguchi was trying to distract him with a video game, as Ueda shut the door. He’d been standing guard there all morning, halting all attempts by staff, managers and other Johnny’s from getting in to gawk or say their piece. Kame was grateful, he wasn’t sure he could handle explaining himself to anyone else right now. As Ueda turned back, Kame saw he was holding a massive bouquet of flowers. 

“They’re from SMAP,” Ueda explained, setting them down on the table. 

“The whole building is in lockdown. How did SMAP manage to get a flower arrangement sent?” .

“Two,” Nakamaru added, the phone still to his ear where he’d been talking almost non-stop to Yokoyama all morning. “Kanjani got one as well.”

“That’s why they’re SMAP,” Taguchi answered as he plucked a card out of the flowers. “It says ‘hang in there’” He handed the card to Kame.

“Well, this will be a great comfort when I’m fired.”

“Don’t be silly, they won’t fire you.” Ueda leaned back against the door. “That would be even worse publicity.”

Kame nodded, but there were worse outcomes.

“Do you think they’ll make us break up?” he asked softly. The others just looked at him sadly, no smart answers coming this time. 

\---

Ryo was starting to find the Kanjani dressing room stifling but he wasn’t quite ready to face the crowds so when the others decided to brave the cafeteria to get something to eat, Ryo stayed back. As soon as they were gone though, he ducked out of the room. His first thought was to go to KAT-TUN’s room, but despite Yoko’s assurances through Nakamaru, he couldn’t quite believe that Kame would be happy to see him.

So he wandered - having to duck out of the way a number of times as staff or other groups wandered around. It seemed like a lot of them were around. Maybe he should just go back to Kanjani’s room. He turned, starting to head back that way. Really, he shouldn’t have been surprised that luck wasn’t on his side as Matsumoto Jun came round the corner at the other end of the hallway. Ryo was too far down to turn back and run away so he steeled himself 

“Nishikido,” Jun greeted, much more affably than Ryo had been expecting. “How are you holding up?” Was that concern in the others voice? Not that Ryo thought Jun couldn’t be concerned, it just didn’t seem right in these circumstances. Kanjani had been treating him with kid gloves all morning - like their careers weren’t hanging in the balance because of him. And now Jun was being nice. Didn’t anybody want to yell at him for the trouble he was causing.

“Is everybody in the building today?” he asked instead of answering Jun’s question. 

“Pretty much. It’s kind of hard to be out and about at the moment what with the swarm of reporters jumping on any Johnny they can get their hands on to make a statement about Nishikido and Kamenashi’s love affair.” 

“Gag order?” It wasn’t really a question, it made sense for everyone to keep their mouths shut until a plan was put together for handling the matter.

“More than that. As far as I can gather, all groups are confined to the Jimusho until management puts out an official statement.”

Ryo leaned heavily against the wall. “This sucks.”

“You brought this down on all of us. If it had been some random guy either one of you was caught with it might have been better. Now all the media wants to do is speculate how many other relationships are happening behind closed doors.” 

And there was the scolding Ryo had been expecting, except that while the words were right, the tone was still light and upbeat, as if Jun wasn’t really bothered by the whole thing at all. It set Ryo on edge.

“Well that makes me feel better.” Ryo bit out sarcastically. He wasn’t just ruining his band, but the whole company. “Thanks.”

“Relax, it’ll work out.” Jun grinned. “And on the bright side, I could go and marry Mao-chan right now and nobody would bat an eyelid.”

That made Ryo let out an involuntary bark of laughter. It was almost absurd but probably true. “Congratulations,” he offered.

Jun clapped him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry. Everyone’s got your back on this.” 

Ryo left Jun after a few more assurances and Ryo found he was feeling a little better. At least until Yoko texted him that Julie had finally deigned to see him. He paused when he heard giggling coming from one of the other rooms along the hallway. He looked at the nameplate on the door - Johnnys’ West. 

Ryo poked his head through the door. They were all grouped around a laptop, Kotaki at the centre and Akito was pointing at the words on the screen and reading them out softly. It took them a couple of moments to realise he was in the room, jumping and elbowing each other as one by one they did. 

“You were reading up on me and Kame.” It wasn’t a question, and from the guilty look on Kotaki and the others faces he’d hit the nail on the head. 

Ryo steeled himself. “How bad is it?” he asked, because he needed to know. The fans were ultimately the ones who would decide how this goes. Without their support he and Kame, Kanjani8 and KAT-TUN, were doomed.

“Not so bad really,” Kotaki answered, when Ryo just stared at him he “I’m mean, yeah, there are a number of fans who are being homophobic and stuff, but mostly it’s been,” Kotaki clamped his mouth shut. 

Ryo narrowed his eyes, “What?”

Shige picked up the conversation nervously. “Well most of them are arguing about whether you stole Kame from Akanishi-kun or whether you just picked up the broken pieces of his heart when Akanishi dumped him for Kuroki-san.”

What?

“That’s ridiculous.” Ryo snapped. That’s not how things happened at all. Where did people even get such ideas? Although with the way AkaKame had been hyped, maybe it wasn’t so surprising. Curiosity got the better of him. 

“Which side is winning?”

“Which side is winning what?” Kame’s voice cut in and Ryo jumped, startled. The others didn’t look much better.

“Ah, uh, nothing,” Ryo stuttered, because Kame did not need to hear the truth. “Just sports, you know.” That’s when Ryo remembered Kame really liked sports and that might just make him more interested. He grabbed Kame’s arm, and escorted him out of the room before he could ask anymore questions.

He dropped Kame’s arm as soon as they were out the door. “What are you doing here?” He winced as he realised how accusatory that came across.

“Meeting with Julie. Nakamaru said yours was at the same time. I figured we may as well go up together. Face our doom and all that.” Kame smiled

How you be taking this so calmly?”

“I’m not. Believe me, on the inside I’m freaking out.” Kame replied. “But…,”

“But?” Ryo asked 

“I don’t regret what we have.” Kame sounded forceful. “And I don’t want to give up on us.”

Ryo felt a weight lift off his shoulders at Kame’s remarks. All this time, while he knew he had Kanjani’s support, and if Jun was to be believed, the rest of the jimusho, it was Kame who Ryo had been really worried about losing over this entire thing.   
“Me neither,” he agreed. He took Kame’s hand in his and they both left to face the music together.

\---

Julie left them standing there for what seemed like forever as she read over some documents.  
Eventually she put the papers down and spoke.

“You two have put us in a rather difficult position.” Her voice was stern and she didn’t raise her head. Kame immediately bowed and apologised. Ryo bowed too and mumbled his own apologies but they didn’t sound nearly as contrite as Kame’s had. 

“The question now is how do we handle it.” Julie finally looked up and pinned them both with a cold stare. “I’m having some statements prepared now. You sign off on them and we can release them to the media.”

“No,” Kame spoke up. They’d only had a few minutes on the elevator ride up to Julie’s office to work out what they were going to do.

“Excuse me?” Julie didn’t sound pleased that they were contradicting her.

“Denials won’t change anything,” Kame started, his voice measured and even. “Every time one of us is in the news from now on - jobs, scandals with girls, anything really - this will be brought up.”

Julie folded her hands together on the table. “Then what would you have us do?” she asked.

Ryo took over. “Like Kamenashi said, it’s not going to go away, so we may as well admit it.”

“Admit it!” Julie sounded surprised, but the look on her face was more calculating, like she’d maybe been expecting (or hoping?), they’d fight back. “You could lose jobs over this.”

Ryo snorted. “If they’re that petty, we’d lose them anyway.”

“This doesn’t only affect you.” She turned to Kame, “KAT-TUN has already lost fans”

That was a low blow. She knew how much KAT-TUN meant to Kame. Was this a test to see if he would stand firm. Ryo squeezed Kame’s hand in support, he hadn’t let it go since taking it in the corridor. Julie’s lips twitched - she hadn’t missed it.

Kame took a deep breath, but his voice remained firm. “I’ve talked it over with them. KAT-TUN is willing to risk it.”

“Kanjani too.” Ryo added before she could even ask. 

Silence again filled the room as Julie seemed to be considering what they said. 

“Very well then,” she said finally. “Come up with a joint statement we can release to the press.”

Kame nodded quickly, thanking Julie. Ryo just remained silent. 

“Don’t thank me yet, this won’t be easy.” Whether this meeting had gone the way she’d wanted or not, Julie’s voice remained stern. “Now get out of here; I have a lot more work to do to try and minimise the fallout.”

\---

Ryo let out the breath he’d been holding as he stepped out of Julie’s office. He heard Kame do the same next to him. 

“That went a lot better than I thought.”

“She realised it too,” Kame agreed, “that the genie was out of the bottle and couldn’t be put back in. It was all down to how we wanted to handle it.”

“Are we ready to handle it?”

They still didn’t know what the fallout from this scandal would be, but maybe it didn’t matter. They had their groups support and more importantly they had each other. It would be enough, of that Ryo was sure.

“You do realise when she said we needed to come up with a joint statement that that meant ‘you’ needed to come up with a statement, right?” 

Kame narrowed his eyes, but there was laughter in them. “Don’t think you can get out of this with your ‘I’m bad at talking to the press’ schtick.”

“It’s not a schtick, it’s true.” Ryo retorted.

Kame grabbed his sleeve and began dragging Ryo down the hallway. “Let’s go tell our groups the good news.”

“You just want Kanjani to bully me into helping you with the statement.”

Ryo suddenly found his back pushed against the wall and Kame’s lips were against his. After a moment Kame pulled back.   
“Oh I can think of plenty of better ways of making you help than using Kanjani.” 

That sounded like a challenge. Ryo decided he really liked the thought of him and Kame being out in open. He didn’t have to hide anymore. It was liberating.


End file.
